FIJI WARRIORS DOWN FORCE A IN BRISBANE
Force A has suffered its first defeat of the Pacific Rugby Cup, going down 36-24 to the Fiji Warriors at Ballymore in Brisbane this afternoon.
The Western Australians trailed 13-12 at half-time and despite scoring two second half tries, were unable to prevent the Fijians from adding 23 points in the second term.
Dane Haylett-Petty was a standout for the Western Australian side, threatening the line at outside centre before shifting to fullback and proving safe under the high ball and finding field position with a strong kicking game.
Head Coach Dwayne Nestor said his side was disappointed to see its unbeaten run come to an end after beating Queensland A (29-23) and Junior Japan (61-6) in the early rounds of the Pacific Rugby Cup.
“We played some very good rugby in the first half today,’ he said. “We put them under pressure, we had the bulk of the territory and I believe we were unlucky to go in trailing at half-time.
“Unfortunately, in the second half we weren’t accurate with our execution, we made too many easy mistakes and we allowed them to dominate the contact area and from there we were playing catch-up.”
While Fiji won the race onto the scoreboard through an early penalty goal, it was Force A that crossed the line first with a Haylett-Petty double – first through No.8 Ross Haylett-Petty diving over before brother Dane added his side’s second shortly after.
The Warriors added another penalty and a try after the half-time siren to take a one-point lead to the break.
The Pacific Islanders added their third shortly after the interval, before Force A replacement winger Brad Lacey responded when he crossed in the right-hand corner.
While Western Force winger Ed Stubbs crossed for Force A’s final try of the afternoon, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Fijians running out 12-point victors.
Pacific Rugby Cup
Monday, 10 March 2014 at Ballymore, Brisbane
Fiji Warriors A 36 defeated Force A 24 (Ross Haylett-Petty, Dane Haylett-Petty, Brad Lacey, Ed Stubbs tries; Dillyn Leyds 2 conversions) at Ballymore, Brisbane.
Force A
1. Francois van Wyk, 2. Robbie Abel, 3. Salesi Manu, 4. Rory Walton, 5. Phoenix Battye, 6. Corey Thomas, 7. Kane Koteka, 8. Ross Haylett-Petty, 9. Ryan Louwrens, 10. Dillyn Leyds, 11. Ed Stubbs, 12. Chris Tuatara-Morrison (c), 13. Dane Haylett-Petty 14. Dylan Sage, 15. Patrick Dellit. Res: 16. Harry Scoble, 17. Joe Savage, 18. Chris Heiberg, 19. Oscar Backhouse, 20. Adrian Hall, 21. Angus Taylor, 22. Va’a Mailei, 23. Brad Lacey.
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